


paging number 2 (why no mobiles?)

by neworld



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No Smut, Sibling Bonding, Sick Klaus Hargreeves, Sickfic, Umbrella Academy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-02-27 04:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18732025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neworld/pseuds/neworld
Summary: Why does no one have a mobile in the UA?  At first I thought the show was set in the late 90s, early 2000s.  But if you do the maths from when they were born to how old they are now it is 2019 in the show, I also think they might show it on the newspaper Five has.  It reminded me of when I was a teenager which was in the 90s/00s, even the fashion, I dressed like Klaus for most of my formative years, and I think this is one of the reason I loved the show so much.  Anyway I guess it is set in an alternate universe that not only has people with powers but also did not have the same tech advancements as we did.  So no mobiles, no ipads and people still go to libraries to research things.This is a canon divergence fic taking advantage of one communication device they still should have had.  Or “what if Patch paged Diego to come help her rescue Klaus





	1. Chapter 1

Diego had just hauled his drunken 13 year old brother into the back of his car when his pager beeped. 

FOUND YOUR BROTHER 

It said along with an address.

“Odd.” Diego said aloud. 

“What?” Luther asked, he was crammed into the passenger seat and looking very uncomfortable.

“My former partner.” Diego explained. “She says she found our brother.” 

“But we just found him.” Luther said puzzled.

“Klaus.” They both said together in sudden realisation, Diego drove like a maniac to the address Patch had supplied.

Patch was waiting for him in the lobby of a very sleazy looking hotel. She raised an eyebrow at Luther, then the other as she fully took in his bulk.

“Patch this is my brother Luther.”

“Another brother?” Eudora asked still eyeballing Luther.

“Hi.” Luther shuffled awkwardly. “What’s the situation?” 

Eudora looked slightly ruffled still but pulled it together like a professional. She explained how she had found the note in a van at a crime scene.

“Five’s van.” Luther agreed.

“Five has a van?” Diego asked. “How? And why? He’s like freaking 12.”

“Who is Five? Why is that a name?” Eudora asked.

“Never mind.” Luther told them both. “If the people who attacked us the other day have Klaus we shouldn’t mess around.” 

They moved around the hotel in a v formation, with one listening to the door and the other two keeping an eye out for anyone approaching from either direction.

They found Klaus; seemingly alone in a random room, tied to a chair, bashing his head against the table to get their attention. The people who had taken him hostage put up a hell of a fight but were unprepared for Luther’s strength, Diego’s ability to curve blades in mid air, and Patch being a total badass. One perpetrator was in the bathroom, pretending to give up, while a gunman came at them from behind, aiming for Diego. She would have killed him too, if he had been a regular person, but his cat like reflexes saved him, he jumped out of the way in time, throwing a knife as he moved. The knife hit Cha Cha is the shoulder of her gun hand, disarming her right arm, out she quickly picked up the pistol with the other, and kept firing, albeit with less impressive aim. At the sound of gunshots Luther lunged into the room and grabbed Klaus, chair and all, then retreated from the room with him. Diego and Eudora swiftly exited themselves, firing defensively at Cha Cha as they left. They all piled back into Diego’s car to make their getaway.

Five jolted awake as Klaus was thrown into the car on top off him. Eudora had cut Klaus from the chair as they ran with her pocket knife, then when they got to Diego’s car Luther had squished himself back into the passenger seat, Diego and Eudora stuffed Klaus into the back where the smallest Hargreeve sibling still lay in a drunken stupor. Then Diego started the engine and drove off like a maniac, tires screeching into the night. 

Five was still inebriated and surly when woken by Klaus, who was also feeling very addled but on realising he had finally been rescued and that his missing baby brother was inexplicably there, grabbed Five and hugged him with adrenaline fuelled intensity.

“What...” Five begins but is cut off by a bout of gunfire that shatters the window.  
“What!” He repeats more shrilly. “Where are we? Is that gunfire? Why are you naked?” He directs his last question to Klaus who has him gripped in a hug and is both sobbing and giggling hysterically, Five tried to bat him off with sluggish drunken movements but Klaus clutched him, determined. 

“Who are those people?” Eudora asks, pushing Klaus down out of the way of the gunfire.

“Hazel and Cha Cha.” Five slurs, but it’s more like he is confirming to himself than answering her question.

“Are you drunk?” Klaus asks, smelling the liquor, he starts patting Five all over, frantic.

“So what?” Five snaps, defensive, still not sure what’s going on.

“So share!” Klaus sob/giggles again.

Eudora has had enough.  
“Ok you need to explain.” She says angrily to Diego. “At least a little bit of what is going on ...about at least a bit... of all this nonsense... or I’m out, I’m just out.”

“...”  
Was as far as Diego got.

“Like... who the fuck were those guys?” Eudora seethed. “Why did they have your brother? Why are they trying to kill us? Why didn’t you go the cops? Why do you have a drunk...child in your car? Why is Luther so fucking enormous? Why have you never mentioned either brother before? What the actual FUCK Diego?”

“OK calm down.” Diego soothed.

“Don’t tell me to fucking calm down!” Eudora fumed. “Just tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Those guys trying to kill us are Hazel and Cha Cha, they’re time traveling assassins.” Five supplied, he was trying to extract himself from Klaus’s grip to no avail.

“And who are you exactly?” Eudora asked.

“That’s Five, he’s my... brother.” Diego told her, somewhat sheepishly.

“How many freaking brothers do you have Diego?” Eudora asked angrily. 

Klaus laughed hysterically again. “This is all of us, the hostage, the drunk child, the ...weirdly massive guy... and the ghost brother no one can see except me.” Klaus laughs again sounding exhausted and slightly unhinged. 

There was a pregnant pause.

“We need to take him to a hospital.” Eudora worried. The only light she had to examine Klaus came from the headlights of passing cars, streetlights and buildings. But even in the flickering, uneven light it was clear he was in bad shape. Blood splattered and shaking like a leaf, his eyes were ringed with exhaustion and bloodshot from crying. Eudora took off her jacket and wrapped in around his shoulders.

“Thank you.” Klaus released Five and sat up a little to get a better look at Eudora. “Thanks for rescuing me.” He added. “I don’t want to go to the hospital though.”

Now that Klaus had let up on him a little Five was able to take note of the situation. 

“What the hell happened to you?” He asked, taking in Klaus’s injuries. 

“When those friends of yours broke into the academy and couldn’t find you, they took me hostage instead.” Klaus told his brother. His voice was strained and croaky from screaming and choking. 

“You told them about the eye didn’t you?” Five accused furiously.

“Of course I told them about the eye.” Klaus splutters. “They were torturing me!”

“You idiot! I needed to find out who that eye belonged to, it could have saved millions of lives.” Five seethed. 

“What eye?” Diego and Luther asked together. 

“Hey stop yelling at him.” Eudora scolded the boy. “He needs medical help, we really need to take him to the hospital.” 

This was met with a round of denial from the car.

“Our mother can patch him up.” Five told her dismissively. 

“Oh you don’t know.” 

“Know what?” Five asked.

“Mom’s dead.” Diego said bluntly, his face a set. 

“What?” Klaus sounded broken.

“Yeah, it was those masked psychos.” Luther confirmed.

“Shit.” Was all Five said.

The car is quiet after that. Klaus cried silently, fat tears rolling down his cheeks. Five seems to pass out again. 

When they got to the academy Diego parked the car and got out to help with Klaus and Five. When the door opens and the interior light comes on Eudora finally got a good look at both brotehrs. Five was curled protectively around what appeared to be the head and torso of a manikin, and Klaus was curled up around him like a cat seeking warmth, he was still shivering despite this and seemed asleep. 

“They are both pretty messed up Diego.” Eudora worried. “The kid probably has alcohol poisoning and...um...”

“Klaus.” Diego supplies.

“Klaus needs to see a doctor.” She shook her head sadly. “Are you sure you can take care of them both?”

Diego nods, to Luther he says. “You take Klaus, I’ll carry Five.” He hands Eudora his car keys. “Take my car, go call in what you found, but please leave us out of it.”

Eudora takes the keys but looks undecided.

“Please Eudora.” Diego prompts. “There is a lot of crazy shit going on in our family already, the police won’t help, they’ll make it worse.” He gives her his most imploring puppy eyes, and Diego has really powerful puppy eyes, Eudora has always been a sucker for them.

“Ok fine, but I am never doing this for you again Diego.” Eudora waits for Luther to extract Klaus awkwardly from the car, he only partially wakes up and whines about leaving his warm, little brother. His limbs are floppy and unhelpful as Luther pulls him out of the car and hauls him to his chest like a bride.

“My hero.” Klaus snickers and snuggled into Luther’s chest.

Luther puffs a fond, exasperated sigh.

Diego throws Five over one shoulder and Delores over the other and they climb the steps to the academy, Eudora drives away, watching the odd foursome in the mirror as she goes. 

As Diego carries Five to his room he passes Pogo, tinkering with Grace’s broken wiring. 

“Is he...?” Pogo began looking up from his work.

“Drunk.” Diego cut his off. “He’s fine, jut needs to sleep it off.”

He wants to ask what Pongo is doing with his mother, but there is already so much going on and he can only deal with so much at one time.

“Klaus might need you to take a look at him though.” Luther informed the chimp as he walked past with his own burden. He gently placed Klaus into his childhood bed, and pulled the blanket over his near naked form. 

Diego dumped Five in his bed, putting Delores at the end of the bed, leaning against the wall so that her plastic gaze looked over the sleeping boy. Pogo appears in the doorway behind him and frowned briefly at Five before padding over to Klaus.

“I’m in a lot of pain Pogo.” Klaus moans giving Pogo his best puppy eyes. And Klaus always has the biggest, saddest puppy eyes anyone has ever seen. At the moment they are really on point, highlighted by a ring of smudged eyeliner and bruising. But Pogo knows his game too well.

“I’m sorry master Klaus but I cannot offer you anything stronger than aspirin.” He told Klaus with genuine regret as he sees how beat up the man is. Pogo looks Klaus over, checking for broken bones or cuts that needed dressing. Klaus pouts and sighs dramatically.

“It’s not fair.” Klaus whines to the air by his shoulder. “Most people would get a shot of morphine at least after getting tortured.”

“What the hell?” Allison asked, she appeared at Klaus’s door just as Pogo was giving his medical opinion that Klaus had no major injuries.

“We found Five.” Luther told her. “And Klaus...”He added.

Klaus raised his “hello” hand in a lacklustre wave.

“I didn’t even know you were missing.” Allison admitted, she sat carefully in the bed mindful not to jolt Klaus. She looked worriedly at his blood-splattered chest.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” Pogo reassured her. “I think he had a nosebleed at some point, there are no open wounds.”

“But what happened?” Alison asked sadly, she gently lifted one of Klaus’s slack hands to examine the bruises circling his wrists. Klaus was just letting Pogo and Alison do whatever they pleased with him, he was too exhausted to participate in what happened to his body now, all he wanted to do was lose consciousness. 

“It was those nut jobs in the masks from last night.” Luther told her. “They took him hostage.”

“Shit Klaus.” Allison’s fingers ghosted over the purple rings of swelling on his throat. “Can I get you anything?” 

“Um maybe some OxyContin?” Klaus told her earnestly. “Or a medicinal nip of spirits?” He amended seeing her eyes narrow.

“Anything other than that?”

“Well, I would love to take a bath.” Klaus asked a little timidly, almost as if embarrassed. He had suddenly realised how rank he smelled, drenched in his own sweat and piss. 

“Oh course, I’ll run you one.” Alison went to get a bath running.

The siblings helped Klaus bathe and get to bed. As Klaus drift to sleep he looks up at Luther, Allison and Diego, fussing over him and realises with a pang of guilt he hadn’t wondered about them once while he was captive, that they were ok and hadn’t been injured in the home invasion. He feels a flood of relief as he does a quick, metal tally to see they are all accounted for, but falls asleep unsure if he is missing something.


	2. Checking on Vanya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus realises he he forgot about Vanya and goes to check she survived too

Klaus’s sleep was fitful and broken. He was troubled by dreams and the remains of withdrawal. In his dream he is back in the mausoleum, but this time he is tied to a chair and Hazel and Cha Cha were part of the horde of ghosts, screaming at him. 

“No one is coming for you.” They taunt.

“No one but us ghosts.”

“No one even notices you’re gone.”

“The living all forgot about you.”

Klaus moans and thrashes against his bonds. Suddenly the tomb goes quiet and when Klaus looks around Hazel and Cha Cha are gone. Standing in their place is Vanya, tiny 13 year old Vanya. She looks at him sadly and says.

“You forgot about me too.”

He woke up in a sweaty tangle of blankets and limbs. “Vanya!” he called out and sat up. Or tried to call out and sit up. In reality the name came out as a husky croak from his swollen throat and sitting up was aborted halfway when every single muscle he had protested. 

“No it’s me Ben.” Ben deadpanned from where he had been sitting waiting for Klaus to wake. 

Klaus grumbled under his breath about annoying ghost brothers thinking they are soooo witty and had a second go at sitting up. 

He felt horrible. His throat was unbearably sore, not just on the outside where the garrotte had cut into him, but also in the inside, like he had been forced to swallow gravel. His nose was stuffy and he had a sinus headache, and every single part of him ached with fatigue. 

Klaus groaned dramatically, sneezed several times then groaned again. 

“I’m siiiiiiiiick.” He whined to Ben.

“That makes sense.” Ben frowned at his ailing brother. Klaus cut a pretty pathetic figure at the moment, looking pale and drawn, sitting huddled on the bed, pulling a blanket around him sniffling and shivering.

“In the last few days you’ve been walking around in the rain not even vaguely dressed for the weather, taken a shit load of drugs, crawled around inside a dumpster, gone through withdrawal, been tortured, not to mention you spent the last 24 hours soaking wet and wearing nothing but a towel.” Ben listed things off on his fingers. 

Klaus was tempted to go straight back to sleep, he was freezing, and the bed held deeply appealing warmth. But no, he really had to check on Vanya, the dream disturbed him in a way that would not let him rest until he was sure it wasn’t some kind of prophecy. He fully recognised this was an irrational thought but hey, how can you really be sure what is rational when you habitually talk to your dead brother who can summon eldritch monsters from his stomach? Klaus pulled himself out of bed, swaying unsteadily for a minute as his head spun and black spotted his vision.

“Whoa, maybe you should lay back down.” Ben said after scrutinising Klaus’s poor attempt at standing. 

“No Ben.” Klaus staggered over to the door, leaning heavily on the doorframe. He kept the blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape. “I have to check on Vanya.”

“Why?” Ben followed Klaus, he seemed to be nervously hovering, as if he could catch his brother if he fell.

“Because she was the only one who wasn’t there last night...” Klaus broke off to cough into his blanketed arm. It hurt like a bitch.  
“She was there the night they attacked...I think... but I haven’t seen her since then.”

“I’m sure she’s fine. The others would have mentioned if she was hurt.” Ben insisted. 

“Maybe they didn’t notice.” Klaus said pointedly. He wavered badly as he staggered across the room, almost falling over then overcorrecting and nearly falling over again. He paused in front of his mirror, noticing he was dressed in what had to be Allison’s purple velour sweatpants and a much too big cotton t-shirt that was probably Luther’s. All his usual eye makeup was missing but his eyes were so dark with bruising and illness it resembled his usual look anyway. 

“Besides I really need something stronger than aspirin.” He moaned rubbing at his aching face.

“Klaus please just go back to bed, let your body recover before you mess it up again.”

Klaus wanted to argue. But He had to stop talking, or giving Ben any attention at all because he had made it to the stairs and this was going to be a challenge. Klaus grabbed the handrail and gingerly made his way down. Every muscle felt overtaxed from a combination of fighting his bonds and sitting cramped in the same position for hours. He was loathing the physical exertion and it was taking so much of his concentration that he barely noticed someone come in the front door until they were speaking to him.

“Klaus?” It was Vanya and some stranger, a man he didn’t recognise. “Are you ok?”

“Vanya.” In his relief at seeing her Klaus let go of the railing to reach out to his sister, this made him lose his balance and fall down the remaining stairs, luckily there was only three.

“Klaus!” Vanya cried out again and ran over to him. She crouched beside him panicking and awkward, but Klaus was unhurt, or at least no more hurt than he had already been, and was already pulling himself up, delighted that the problem of finding Vanya had miraculously solved itself without him having to do more than go down a flight of stairs, because honestly he barely managed that much. 

“Vanya!” He clasped her in a hug. “You’re alright.” 

“Well yeah.” She seemed puzzled by his concern.

“I haven’t seen you since the night those psychos attacked us, I was worried about you Vanya.” Klaus explained in a slurred, croaky voice that only spiked Vanya’s concern for him. 

“Oh Klaus I’m fine.” Her eyes were filled with worry and confusion, flickering over his bruises and pale face. “But are you ok? Are you sick?” Klaus still had her locked in a frantic hug that was mostly what was keeping him upright, the man she had entered with had a steadying hand at Vanya’s back to give some more strength into the arrangement since Vanya seemed to be struggling with her brother's weight. Seeing Klaus stumble and struggle to stand was not all that unusual, but he looked particularly pathetic today, and Vanya could feel a worrying heat through his clothing. 

“Oh me? I’m just... dandy.” He told her, pulling out of the hug a little and making more of an effort to support his own body weight. “Stop worrying poor little Vanya.” He berated himself. 

Vanya repositioned herself so that Klaus was propped up under her shoulder, her guest shuffled awkwardly, unsure what to do or say, drawing Klaus’s attention for the first time.

“Oh hello...” He wriggled the fingers of his “hello” hand at the stranger, who was looking to Vanya for guidance. 

Poor guy, Klaus mused, must be Vanya’s boyfriend or something, imagine meeting your new partner’s family this way. Klaus went to exchange an amused glance with Ben but saw he was busy talking to the ghost of a grotesquely beaten man in the foyer. Whatever Ben...

Klaus flinched a little when he saw the ghost, because it was disgusting! Why couldn’t more ghosts be like Ben and clean their image up a little? He wondered.

He must have said this aloud as it prompted a whispered conversation between Vanya and the man on his right. 

“What is he talking about?” The man inquired.

“Uh... he...long story... never mind we should get him lying down.” 

Klaus dragged his gaze from the ghost.

“I’m fiiiine Vanya. Besides, those stair’s are like...insurmountable...no way we can get back up them.” His voice cracked on the last word and he had to burry his face in his shoulder to avoid hacking all over Vanya.

“Through to the living room.” Vanya indicated the direction with a nod of her head and the trio stumbled off, carefully navigating around the broken chandelier.

To Vanya’s surprise they found the rest of the Hargreeves in the lounge already, having a heated discussing. 

They all looked up as Vanya entered and she felt a familiar wave of anxiety on seeing them all. Luther’s face never gave anything away but Allison’s hardened into suspicion as she saw Leonard. Five’s expression was pure frustrated irritation, though that may have been from the discussion they were having. Diego jumped up and helped lower Klaus onto the sofa. 

“Hey.” He scolded Klaus mildly. “You shouldn’t be up.”

“He seems really sick...do you know about this? What happened?” Vanya asked Diego timidly but it was Allison that answered. 

“It’s family business...” She looked pointedly at Leonard.

Vanya felt a spike of anger. They were excluding her again.

“I should go...” Leonard said hesitantly.

“This is so typical.” Vanya seethed. “You’re always excluding me.” She glared around the room at her siblings. “ I used to think it was dad, but he’s gone and you’re still doing it.”  
She went to storm out Leonard in tow but Klaus stopped her.

“Vanya, don’t leave...” He began but was cut off by a nasty bout of coughing. He covered is mouth with his “goodbye” hand, curled into a fist, the “hello” hand he held out to Vanya imploringly.

This stopped Vanya, drawing her attention to the bracelets of bruises on Klaus’s wrists and then the matching necklace on his pale throat. Something bad had clearly happened to him, and what right did she have to criticise the others if she didn’t stay and find out what.

“Please don’t leave.” Allison added, she seemed sincerely desperate for Vanya to stay. “Everything has been so crazy.” She looked almost like she might cry.

Vanya relented. She seemed to deflate. “Leonard I...” She began.

“It’s ok.” Leonard assured her, instantly supportive. “I get you have some important family stuff going on right now.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Just remember your stuff is important too.” 

Vanya gave him a small, grateful smile.

“I’ll call you later.” She told him, beginning to walk him to the door. 

“Nice to meet you all.” He waved to the rest of the room, which Vanya thought was very polite of him, because he hadn’t met them really, they had all been rude and dismissive of him. 

“Hope you feel better soon Klaus.” He sad to the one member he had actually somewhat interacted with. 

Klaus was having a hushed conversation with the empty sofa beside him but looked up when he was spoken too, his eyes glazed and fever bright.

“Oh bye Harold.” He gave a languid flap of his “goodbye” hand. 

Vanya had been looking at Leonard, musing about how well mannered he was, so she saw his odd reaction in full. He started, his eyes widened in a flash of fear then narrowed in anger and suspicion. He was so shocked he nearly ran into the doorframe. His shock was quickly tucked back to his normal, amiable expression, like replacing a mask.

“Leonard.” Vanya corrected Klaus. “I don’t think I told him your name.” She said to Leonard apologetically. “Anyway he’s a little...” 

“It’s fine.” Leonard waved her off as she walked him out to the foyer, almost overly casual, it felt off somehow. Vanya worried suddenly if this was all getting to be too much for him. He had just met her really and already had to deal with a lot of weird shit. 

But then he smiled at her and put this out of her mind. 

“Call me later ok? Maybe we can meet for dinner?” He smiled as he stepped out of the house.

“I’d like that.” Vanya agreed smiling shyly and waving him away.

She returned to her siblings, Diego was arguing with Luther, big surprise, Allison and Five were waiting for them to stop, matching expressions of annoyance and impatience. 

“So?” Vanya broke in, cutting them off. “What happened?”

“It was those masked lunatics.” Diego was, surprisingly, the one who answered. “They took Klaus hostage and tortured him for information on Five.”

“Oh my god.” Vanya paled. “That’s awful.” She turned to Klaus. “Klaus I’m so sorry.” But he wasn’t paying attention, engrossed in his conversation with them empty air again. 

“No I don’t want to tell her...” He was muttering . “She’ll be upset..”

Vanya frowned at him anxiously.

“Vanay I’m sorry about that night.” Diego told her, distracting her from her worry. “Those nut jobs could just have easily grabbed you too.” 

Diego’s face was full of guilt. He clearly felt bad for what had happened to Klaus. 

“I didn’t even think of that.” Allison gasped horrified. 

“Look this is all very touching...” Five interrupted them. “But we have bigger concerns.” 

“The apocalypse?” Vanya guesses. 

“He told you about that?” Luther asks.

“You...uh...think it’s really happening?” She hedged. No one looked massively convinced. 

Five heaved a sigh. “Why is this so hard for everyone to believe?” He glares around the room. “I can jump through time, Alison can do mind control, Luther thinks he’s fooling everyone with that overcoat, and Klaus talks to the dead.”

“On that.” Klaus interrupts raising a hand shakily like a child getting the teachers attention. “Ben insists on me telling you all about Harold.” 

Five frowns at his brother. Klaus looks like death warmed up but he seems sincere. “Ben’s here?” He asks.

“Yeah...” He pauses to clear his throat, his voice is shot, breaking and skipping random syllables as his swollen vocal cords try and force out the words. “He wants you to know Harold killed his father...smashed his head in with a hammer...” Klaus shrugged a little as he said it. “He seemed pretty nice to me though.” 

“Who's Harold?” Five, Luther and Diego asked at the same time with varying levels of concern, confusion and irritation.

“Vanya’s boyfriend.” Klaus drew out the last word uncertainly, like it was a question. 

“His name is Leonard, and he wouldn’t do that!” Vanya told Klaus, she wasn’t angry with him, he was clearly just confused and really out of it, not knowing what he was saying.

“Well, the ghost that came in with him disagrees.” Klaus insists, flapping a hand at the air beside Vanya. “Says the guy is his son... Harold, and that Harold murdered him... though to be fair, Mr Jenkins here does seem like a raging asshole... so...might not be a deal breaker.” Klaus looks up at Vanya, imploring and sympathetic but then something drew his attention back to the seemingly empty space. “..Oh wha’s that... killed a woman and is hiding her body in his attic...hmm...yeah thaaaat might be a deal...”

“Why are you doing this?” Now Vanya was upset. 

Klaus coughed and shook his head, wanting to convey that he didn’t want to upset her but feeling too light headed and overwhelmed to put the words together. He glared to the empty seat beside him.  
“Told you she’d be upset.” He wheezed.

Allison was quick to jump on this.  
“Vanya I know you don’t want to hear it.” She fixed Vanya with her most earnest look. “But I get a really weird vibe off Leonard, maybe Klaus is...”

 

“No!” Vanya interrupted heatedly, outside lightning cracked across the sky and rain began pounding on the roof. “He isn’t like that!”

“Ok enough.” Five interrupts. “We don’t have time for this.” He gestures vaguely at the three of them. “We can look in to any problems in your personal lives AFTER we stop the world from ending in three days.” 

Vanya goes to argue again but something in Five’s eyes stops her, he seems... desperate and that isn’t an expression she thought she would ever associate with him. Whatever was going on with him, he was still her brother, he had always been the one she was closest to and he needed her.

“Ok.” She agrees, “Let’s just focus on this for now. So what do we do?”

Five sighs. “We need to find out how the apocalypse happens, I have some theories....”

“Klaus are you sober?” Luther asks suddenly.

“Hmm?” Klaus looks up blearily.

“If you can see ghosts again you must be sober right? Conjure dad.” 

Klaus groaned. “Are you kidding me? Why?”

“It can’t be a coincidence.” Luther insisted, but he was mainly speaking to Five. “He was convinced there was some kind of danger, that’s why he sent me to the moon, I’m sure he knows something.”


	3. reggie does't have a mobile either

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus tries to summon reginald Hargreeves

“Can you conjure dad?” Allison prompts Klaus, but her voice is soft and kind, letting him know it was ok to say no.

“Doubt it.” Klaus shrugs. Sure he can see a few ghosts milling around, but they are vague and poorly focussed, apart from Ben, who is a sharp as usual. Conjuring a spirit was a whole different story from just seeing spirits who were already around, it required a level of concentration Klaus just didn’t think he was capable of right now. Plus he really, really didn’t want to.

“Try.” Luther insists, it’s not that he doesn’t care about Klaus, it’s more that he feels lost without his fathers leadership. So much of his life had hinged on following his father’s command, now without it he felt untethered. 

Klaus gives his most put upon sigh, following it up with a weak coughing fit for emphasis. “Ok fine, I’ll summon dear old dad, up from the fiery depths of hell.” 

“Would you stop joking about dad being in hell.” Luther huffed.

“Never! Now hush I’m doing you a massively inconvenient favour.” Klaus told him rolling his eyes a little and making a big show of sitting up in a less comfortable position.

For several moments the family was silent, all eyes on Klaus. And he did try, really, but either his fever was making him too fuzzy or the persistent, scratchy irritation in his sinuses and lungs was too distracting, or maybe Reggie just didn’t want to chat? He simply could not get a lock on their father’s spirit. Eventually he just shrugged and shook his head.

“Not answering.” His Ns come out more like Ds and Klaus sniffled thickly, trying to clear his airway but only manages to make a sound like a clogged drain.

“What? You barely tried.” Luther protested. “Maybe it will just take a minute longer.”

“Luther let it go.” Diego snaps. He sat down on the sofa next to Klaus, reaching out to feel his forehead. 

Klaus gasps at Diego.  
“Gross Diego, you just sat in Ben.” 

Diego ignores this trying not to shudder at the idea of phasing through his brother’s ghost. Ben got off the sofa to accommodate Diego and sat by Five at the bar instead  
“He’s got a fever.” Diego tells the room, looking accusingly at Luther like it’s his fault.  
“Anyway I think we should go after Hazel and Cha Cha. Maybe they know something.”

“Unlikely.” Five says this a dismissive wave of his hand. “They are just hired guns, they don’t know why they are meant to kill their targets, they just get a name and a time.”

“Why do you even think you can stop the apocalypse?” Allison asks.

Five gives her a sharp look. 

“I mean...” Allison quickly amends. “It could be an asteroid, or a solar flare. You couldn’t stop something like that.”

“All the more reason...” Luther begins but Five cuts him off before he can bring up their father again.

“I know it’s a person. I know I am capable of stopping the apocalypse by killing the correct person.” Five insists.

“Yeah but how?” 

“You wouldn’t possibly understand.” Five snaps. “I’ve spent the last 50 years researching this, just trust me, I know ok. Besides, if they didn’t think I could stop it, the temps commission wouldn’t be so desperate to stop me, they blew up a building just because they found out I was going there, that’s extreme, even for them.” 

“Then maybe I should look into who might be capable of destroying the world.” Allison told him in a placating tone. "Maybe some kind of government watch list of high threat people?"

Five didn't look excited by this idea, but didn't disagree, which was actually pretty posative for him lately so Allison counted it as a win.

I’m going to meet up with Patch, see if she got any leads on Cha Cha and Hazel.” Diego told his siblings.

“Well I’m going to look for Dad’s research on the moon." Luther told them. "I really think there must be a connection.” 

“Fine, we’ll all meet back here later.” Five disappeared in a flash of blue without bothering to explain what he was going to do. 

“Could you stay with Klaus.” Diego asked Vanya.

Vanya was about to protest about not being included in the mission but Diego fixed her with a serious look.  
“I don’t think he should be alone.”

Vanya softened. “Of course.” She goes to sit with Klaus on the sofa when Diego gets up. Klaus slumps against Vanya.

“Just like old times huh?” He mumbles sleepily. Vanya is hit with a wave of nostalgia. She had done this before. Klaus had been somewhat of a sickly kid, and often missed training or missions due to minor illness. Because sick Klaus had been extra emotional and clingy he needed someone with him at all times, and because Vanya’s time was considered less important than everyone else’s that job often fell on her. She had spent many hours on this very sofa watching TV with him until he was feeling well enough to find her boring again. This was always a bittersweet moment for Vanya, clingy, needy Klaus could be adorable, but also very tiring. 

Vanya let’s him use her as a pillow as he curls up and gets comfortable. She carefully pulls the blanket into a better position to cover more of Klaus’s shivering form.

“If Hazel and Cha Cha come back here while we are gone don’t try and engage with them.” Diego ordered Vanya, his face serious though Vanya certainly had no intention of trying to take on time traveling assassins and doesn’t know why he thought she might. 

“And keep trying to summon Dad.” Luther commands as he leaves the room.”

And then they were gone, and Vanya was alone with Klaus.

He looks up at her with big, shimmering, feverish eyes. “Do I really have to keep trying to summon dad?” He asks, pleadingly.

Vanya smiles reassuringly at him, and flicks of the TV for them both.

“No you just get some rest.”


	4. Daytime TV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya takes care of Klaus while the other go off to stop the apocalypse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise reading back through this that Luther comes across as a bit of a dick. So just want to say that I actually love Luther and am not trying to vilify him. I think it would be unfair to judge him by regular people standards when you consider his upbringing, and Ben is adamant that Luther would do anything to help Klaus if he was in trouble, he must have had a reason to think that, he convinces Klaus pretty quickly too. 
> 
> Plus that scene where Klaus is teasing him about bringing a girl home! His face! He's like a big dumb mastiff puppy, aw.

An hour or two after his siblings departs Ben is sitting on the arm of the sofa watching “Maury” because he is incapable of changing the channel and Klaus is asleep. Vanya and Klaus both fell asleep curled up on each other halfway through one episode of the bold and the beautiful. Ben watches them in fond amusement. Klaus is snuggled into Vanya, his head on her lap and his body curled up in a ball to trap warmth. Vanya has slumped over onto him, her head resting on his back and her arm around his chest. Neither of them look comfortable to Ben, they are both so skinny, all bone against bone. But they look sweet, and Ben wishes he could take a photo. Ben was not shocked that Klaus fell asleep; he was sick and had not slept well for as many nights as Ben could remember. But he had been a little curious that Vanya dropped off like that. He didn’t know that Vanya was going through a withdrawal of her own and it was having a physical toll on her body. Quite apart from the emotional symptoms, oscillating wildly from ecstatic to desolate to furious, she was also getting fits of dizziness and spiking bad headaches. It felt at times like her whole body was getting weak jolts of electricity running through her in a wave. It left her feeling giddy and unsettled. 

These symptoms were not new. There had been a times she had forgotten to take her pills, she would get the shocks within 24 hours and it was unpleasant enough for her to quickly take a dose. But this time the elation she was feeling, the creativity, the connection to her music, it seemed like it was worth the negative symptoms. She didn’t want these new feelings to go away. 

They didn’t get very much sleep though before Klaus woke them both up with another nightmare. He wasn’t in the mausoleum this time, just for varieties sake. It was a different nightmare, not exactly based on any real event he had experienced but the meaning was so obvious that whenever he had it he would roll his eyes at his psyche for being so unimaginative. He was in the backseat of the umbrella academy van with his siblings, his father was driving, suddenly with no warning his father gets out, while the car is still moving. None of his siblings seem to notice and he has to madly scramble over them to try to get to the steering wheel before the car crashed. He started awake with a gasp as the car ploughed into a small family walking along, the picture of domestic peace. 

The gasp caught in his throat and set him off coughing. This bounced Vanya around until she woke up, sat up blearily and got him a glass of water.

“You ok?” She asked.

Klaus downed the water so rapidly Vanya decided he was probably dehydrated and needed more. She took the empty glass from him and padded back to the kitchen, still not quite awake. Klaus hauled himself off the sofa and trailed after her, still bundled in his blanket cape. 

“Want something to eat?” Vanya asked setting a full glass of water in front of Klaus who had flopped down at the table.

“Not really hungry...” Klaus glanced of to his right. “Oh but Ben thinks I should eat something because even he can’t remember the last time I ate anything... so it must really have been a while.” 

Vanya frowned a little at this information. She looked through the cupboards until she found a few cans of soup and a saucepan. 

“Ben’s still here?” She asked, flicking on the stove.

“Oh yeah of course, that pain in the arse never leaves me alone.” He gives the empty air beside him a teasing grin. 

“Do you still see the ghost who said he was Leonard's father?” Vanya asked softly.

Klaus looks around, he leans back in his chair so he can peer through the kitchen door into the next room. The angle makes his nose start running again and sits up sniffling and coughing.  
“Nope... thank goodness.” He sniffles again. “Could you pass me some of that kitchen towel?” He asks Vanya gesturing to the roll on the bench.

But Vanya does him one better and pokes around until she finds him an actual box of tissues.

“Vanya you are a gem.” He tells her ripping out a clump and blowing his nose for a solid minute.

Vanya waits patiently for him to finish then asks.

“Do ghost ever lie?” She asks timidly. “I mean, I don’t really know Leonard that well but he’s been really kind, and sweet...”

“Well sure.” Klaus reassures her. “Ben bullshits me all the time.” He glares to his right again. “This one time he insisted these pills I found... I was going through the bathroom medicine cabinet of this guy I had hooked up with...Ben insisted they were laxatives to try and stop me taking them...what a little sneak! But they weren’t laxatives...luckily...they were like...super strong ketamine.”

Everything about that story unsettled Vanya, but she steered the conversation back on topic.

“It’s just...I don’t know...he’s the first person who’s ever really taken an interest in me...” Vanya told him, feeling almost on the verge of tears.

“What are you kidding me?” Klaus asked. “I thought you’d have a whole bunch of nerdy friends and shy,earnest love interests? You’re such a sweetheart! And you’re adorable! I mean look at you I could just...put you on a shelf like a little ornament.” 

“That compliment got away from you a bit.” Ben told him dryly. 

But Vanya smiled. “That’s nice of you to say, but the truth is I never really fit in with anyone...not even my family...”

“That’s not..” Klaus’s voice broke and he had to pause and clear his throat. “Because of you... I know you think that...I read your book.” Vanya blushed at this but Klaus ignored it a forged on. “We were all just messed up, we were kids and the things we had to do were fucked.” He broke off to cough and clear his throat again. “With all the stuff we were dealing with, I guess it didn’t leave a lot of time to think about anyone else.” 

“You all just always seemed so close...” Vanya pressed. “Like you were all part of something special.”

“It’s so weird to me you were jealous of having powers and going on missions.” Klaus gave her a sad little puzzled smile. “I bet if you did have powers and ever actually went on a mission you would hate it. I always did, so did Ben.”

Ben nodded, as if Vanya could see him.

“But you’re right, we were close.” Klaus smiled sad and wistful “Then Five vanished, Ben died tragically, and we all drifted apart.” He shrugged and coughed.

Vanya ladled out two bowls of soup.

Somewhere else in the house they heard raised voices. Luther was speaking harshly to someone but they couldn’t make out what he was saying or hear the other person so they ignored it. Eating their soup in silence.

“Sorry about the book, I mean if what I wrote upset you...that wasn’t why I...”

“I know.” Klaus paused in eating and just stirred his soup. “Sorry I made you feel excluded.” 

They eat in comfortable silence after that. By the time he is done with his soup Klaus’s eyes were heavy lidded and he slumped in his seat, one arm propping up his heavy head and idly twirling the spoon around his mostly empty bowl.

Vanya doesn’t like seeing him so listless. He's still much paler than usual with flushed cheeks and deep purple bags under his eyes.

"Want anymore soup?" She asks him.

He shakes his head, sneezes several times, wiping his nose on his sleeve, already forgetting the box of tissues in front of him.

"Maybe you should go to bed?" Vanya worries. "You really sound terrible." 

Klaus just shakes his head again. He doesn't want to be alone in his room. Vanya seems to guess this. 

“Come on.” She tells him with a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I think “Passions” is on about now.”

Klaus visibly brightens.

But when they move back into the living room they find Luther is there at the bar, clumsily refilling a glass of scotch. 

“Are you drunk?” Klaus asks him, delight lifting his croaky voice. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Luther drink. His pleasure is short lived though because on noticing Klaus Luther gets up and looms over him, his eyes blaze with anger.

“Conjure dad.” He commands. “Right now.”

“Luther I ca...” Is as far as he gets before Luther grabs him by the throat and has him pinned to the wall.

“Conjure him!” Luther lifts him off the ground, pushing him up the wall. “He needs to answer to me for what he’s done.”

Klaus struggled feebly, choking and slapping weakly at Luther’s arms.

Ben hovers around and frets uselessly.

“Let go of him!” Vanya shouts, pounding at Luther’s back with her tiny fists. Outside the rain abruptly pours down again. A strange wind picks up inside the room, sweeping up loose paper and rattling bottles and ornaments on the shelves. The ceiling lamp sways ominously. Luther is shoved sideways, stumbling slightly off balance.

“What the hell.” Luther drops Klaus and looks around the room. “What’s causing this?” He asks puzzled.

Klaus drops straight to the floor and coughs and coughs and coughs, then gasps and coughs until he’s chocking again. 

“You asshole!” Vanya fumes at Luther, crouching by Klaus, rubbing his back and shushing him awkwardly, not sure how to help him. 

A painting falls off the wall with a crash.

“Are you doing this?” Luther asks Klaus frowning in confusion.

Klaus blinks through tears. “Luther.” He finally wheezes, but he manages to put so much into the word it’s like a reproach.

The strange energy dies down and Luther is too depressed to wonder further on it. Maybe it was some kind of freaky weather event? What does it even matter. He slumps down on the sofa, expression desolate, and shocks all three siblings by bursting into tears. Klaus and Vanya exchange glances, then Klaus and Ben do.

“What happened?” Klaus rasps, he sneezes and winces rubbing his throat.

Luther explains tearfully how he had found his fathers research and that he know knew he had been sent to the moon for four years for no reason, four years of his life gone just because his father didn’t want to look at him. He was utterly broken and betrayed. He felt like his life was a pointless waste.

“Hey, come on.” Klaus approached Luther like he was a wounded animal, arms held out, placating. “Don’t be like that, you’re our leader...remember? Our number one...oh captain my captain...” Klaus rambled comforting platitudes. His voice was now so hoarse it had passed beyond croaky and was squeaky. It would have been funny if they were in a less serious situation. 

Vanya timidly sat at Luther’s other side, putting a small hand on his large one. She was stunned to see Luther like this. 

They were all so distracted they didn’t notice two more people enter until it was too late.

 

Hazel and Cha Cha had failed to find any other leads on Five, but they had found a very helpful book explaining the powers of the other Hargreeves siblings. Now feeling more prepared to take on the super-powered family they returned to the mansion and waited outside in their stolen blue car. Watching and waiting for conformation Five was there. 

“Knife boy and mind control woman just left.” Cha Cha says as she sees Diego and Allison slip out the front door. “That means worse case scenario we just have to deal with monkey boy, the junky and the normal one.”

“And Five.” Hazel points out. 

“If he’s even there.” They had agreed to wait until they caught a sign of Five, worried that after they hit the mansion more than once, he would definitely not be back. But after a while they couldn’t handle waiting in the car anymore and decided to just go in and hope for the best. 

“What the hell is up with this weather?” Hazel remarked about the sudden downpour as they broke into the mansion through a side door.

The crept through the house towards the sound of raised voices and came upon a very odd scene. Three people were squished onto a couch in the living room, the junky they had previously captured and the one they knew had no powers, they seemed to be comforting their massive brother who was bawling his eyes out.

“I don’t even want to fucking know what this is about.” Cha Cha interrupts. “I just want to know where Five is.” 

Both Hazel and Cha Cha point their guns at the sibling. 

“He isn’t here.” Vanya whimpers her eyes blown with fright. 

Klaus squeaks in fear and burrows in to Luther side. Luther just looks them dead in the eye.  
“Go head...just shoot me.” He tells Cha Cha. 

“Where is he?” Cha Cha addresses Vanya, since she had given the most helpful response.

“I don’t know.” Vanya trembled.

“You got a way to contact him?” Hazel asks growing frustrated.

Vanya shakes her head, feeling rising dread.

“Maybe it will motive you if I shoot one of your brothers?” Cha Cha snaps at her. “Seems to me we don’t need all three of you as hostages.”

She lifts her gun, levelled at Luther’s forehead. He doesn’t even flinch. But Vanya does. 

With a strangled scream a wave of energy that had been building inside her releases. It explodes outward picking up Hazel and Cha Cha and throwing them against the wall with the force of being hit by a truck. Every piece of glass in the room shatters, paintings and trophies fall off the walls, small cracks appear in the plaster. 

Klaus and Luther, in the epicentre of the explosion are thrown back against the sofa, but unharmed. Klaus is still clutching Luther in terror but Luther disentangles himself and carefully approaches the assassins. It is not a pretty sight. Cha Cha’s neck is clearly broken and Hazel head is crushed in at the back.

“Vanya.” Luther says to her, drunkenly trying to process what is happening. “You have powers.”

“Are they dead?” Vanya’s tiny voice is so soft Luther barely heard her over the rain. 

He nods.

Vanya crumbles. She covers her face in her hands and sobs and shakes like she’s fit to fall apart. 

“I killed them.” She has starting to hyperventilate. Klaus pulled her to him on the couch and enveloped her in a hug. Mumbling soothing nonsense. 

Vanya kept sobbing in big hitching uncontrolled breaths. 

“You have powers.” Luther repeats, awed. “Maybe yours were delayed or dormant.” He reasoned. “They must have just manifested, like a fight or flight reflex.”

As if things couldn’t get any weirder their mother breezed into the room as if she had never been dead.

“Is everyone alright? I heard a crash.” Grace asked, her perfect face tilted to the side, questioning. She quickly took in the state of the room then singled in on Vanya.

“Oh dear, what happened?” She sat with Vanya, smoothing the sobbing woman’s hair from her face.

“I killed them...they were...” Vanya took a big hiccupy breath. “...going to...shoot Luther...I killed them.”

Grace looked mildly over at the crushed bodies. “There there dear.” She soothed. “Try and take deep breaths. Do you have your medication?” 

Vanya shook her head, dislodging more tears to roll down her pale face. “Ran...ran out...” She sobbed. 

“Never mind, I will get you something to calm you down.” She whisked off.

“I thought someone said mom was dead.” Klaus whispered, his voice barely there. 

Grace was back before they had any time to discuss it. She handed Vanya a two pills and a glass of water.

“These are just sedatives Vanya sweetheart.” She told Vanya. “They will make you feel better, I will get your normal medication for you I soon as possible but these will settle you in the mean time.”

She frowned at Klaus who was coughing again, deep and rattling.

“I don’t like the sound of that cough Klaus.” She tutted, reaching up and laying a cool hand on his forehead, her eyes unfocussed for a second, calculating. 

“101.5.” She tisked. “Come on, your going straight to bed.” She gently but firmly levered both Vanya and Klaus up from the couch. 

“You should lie down as well.” She told Vanya gently, ushering them with an arm around each of their backs, guiding them up towards the stairs.

“Luther dear.” She called to him as she left. “Find something to board up that window won’t you.” She asked him sweetly. “And maybe move those bodies just in case the police are called from the noise.”

Luther stared after her blinking dully.

Grace led them up to the bedrooms. They dropped Klaus off in his bed first but when Vanya went to leave he grabbed the sleeve of her shirt. His face was still strained with fear, his big green eyes bored into her imploring.

“You want me to stay?” She asked, she had stopped sobbing but still looked pale a shocked. 

“I don’t want to be alone right now either.” She admitted, climbing in to bed with Klaus. His bed was only a single but they were both slender so they fit well enough. Besides they were both more interested in human comfort than physical comfort right now. 

Grace fussed with the blankets, making sure they were both covered. 

“I’m getting you some cough medicine.” She told Klaus then she clicked away in her heels.

Vanya watched her go, beginning to feel detached and unreal from the shock of the day. Klaus drew her attention with a tiny squeeze of her hand. He was looking at her, his eyebrows scrunched together in concern. He tried to say something but all that came out was a scratchy wheeze of air. He cleared his throat and tried again but only had the same result and triggered a round of coughing.

“Lost you voice?” She asked sympathetically. 

Klaus wheezed pointlessly again then nodded, frustrated. He held up his hand, linking his thumb and index finger in a circle.

“Am I ok?” Vanya guessed.

Klaus nodded, eyebrows still knitted.

“You were right.” She told him sadly. “I do hate having powers.”

Klaus gave her a sad smile and squeezed her hand again. 

“Why do I have powers now all of a sudden?” She asked him, searching his face. “Do you think Luther was right? I have been in danger before, I mean not like that but still...”

Klaus seemed to think for a moment. He pointed to Vanya then bawled his fists and mimed punching the pointed to himself.

“You want me to punch you?” Vanya asked confused. Klaus shook him head and rolled his eyes. He shot a quick scathing look off to the side, presumably to Ben, who presumably said something mocking.

There was a muted crash from downstairs. Klaus jumped, his eyes filled with fear.

“It’s ok.” Vanya told him soothingly. “I think it’s just Luther.”

Klaus nodded slowly relaxing.

“Are you ok? That must have been so frightening, seeing those people again.”

Klaus nodded again, his eyes were watering, Vanya wondered if it was from his illness or if he was starting to cry.

“It’s ok.” She rubbed his arm, gently. “Don’t worry, no one’s going to hurt you now, you can rest.” She smiled a little. “I will protect you.” She told him then gasped.  
“Oh that’s what you were saying!” She realises, thinking of his charade. “You think it was because I was protecting you?”

Klaus nodded, tweaking a tired smile.

Grace floated back into the room carrying a bottle of cold syrup. 

“Here you go.” She carefully measured out a cap full. Klaus reached up and took the bottle off her instead, draining about a third of it before she could yank it back off him.

“Klaus that was at least three times the recommended dose of acetaminophen for someone your size.” She scolded him. Klaus whined and made grabby hands for the bottle. 

Grace shook her head firmly. “You can’t have more for 48 hours.” She told him. Klaus gave her a blast of puppy eyes, coughing pathetically. But Grace had been programmed to be immune to such tricks.

“Maybe next time just bring the cap, not the whole bottle.” Vanya advised. Klaus frowned at her. Who’s side are you on?

“Do you need anything else?” Grace asked Vanya softly.

“No, thanks mom.” The sedatives were taking a hold and it wasn’t long before the two of them slipped into a drug and adrenaline crash fuelled sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the other siblings return and discuss their various discoveries.

Diego had spent the last few hours with Eudora Patch. He had met up with her to discus Hazel and Cha Cha but found she had no answers for him only a shitload of questions. At first he had tried to put her off. Secrecy was second nature to Diego. But eventually she wore him down and he found himself unexpectedly opening up about the umbrella academy. About Five going missing at 13 and miraculously returning as a salty old man trapped in a young body. About Allison and Luther, who had clearly loved missions and their powers, and how he had always resented them but loved them and felt overwhelmed and conflicted whenever he was near them. He told her about Ben dying and slowly losing Klaus to drugs. He told her about Vanya and the book. In the end he felt better, having finally confided in someone, and although he didn’t get any of the information he had hoped he left Eudora feeling lighter, hopeful for the future. 

Then he got home and found the place trashed and two bodies on the floor.

“What the hell happened here?” He asked Luther, who was drunkenly trying to duct tape cardboard over the broken window. 

“Oh...uh those killers came back.” Luther told him.

“So you what? Threw a grenade at them?” Diego asked.

“It does look like a bomb hit this place.” Five mused, he had just flashed into the room as Diego spoke and looked around at the general chaos.

“Is that Hazel and Cha Cha?” He asked astonished. 

Luther nodded. 

“I’m amazed you managed to take them both out.” Five told him impressed.

“ I didn’t.” Luther told him. “It was Vanya.”

“Vanya?” Diego asked incredulous.

Luther nodded again.

“Vanya.” Diego asked again holding his hand at about his chest height to illustrate how tall his sister was. 

“Yes.” Luther said shortly.

““As in tiny little no powers Vanya?” Diego continued his tirade. “Did this?”

“How?” Five asked.

“She has powers.” Luther told his brothers, rubbing his temples, wishing he hadn’t just slugged back so much scotch.

Five and Diego just stared and the shambles of the room for a moment flabbergasted. 

“Well shit.” Five and eventually, he walked over to Hazel and Cha Cha’s bodies. 

“I guess it’s a relief at least that these knuckle heads are out of the equation.” He begins searching the bodies methodically.

“What are you doing?” Diego asked, because Five never explained anything he did and it was infuriating. 

“They don’t have a briefcase with them.” He said like that explained anything. 

At this point Allison came running into the room.

“Guys you won’t believe what I found out... what the hell happened here?” Allison did a double take as see takes in the bodies and the general disarray. She is clutching a red book to her chest.

“The gunmen came back...” Luther begins.

“Is Vanya Ok?” Allison interrupts looking around for her sister. “Is Klaus? Where are they?”

“They are both fine.” Luther reassures her. “Mom took them upstairs...oh Mom is alive by the way...”

Diego gives him a sharp look.  
“What?”

“What happened here?” Allison asked.

“It’s a long story.” Luther sighed. “What was your exciting discovery first?” He asked hopeful of good news.

“Oh my god you will never believe this.” Allison tells them, holding up the book. “Vanya has powers.”

Five stops poking around the bodies long enough to smirk in bitter amusement. 

“I know.” Luther sighs.

“Mom is alive?” Diego asks.

Allison had not been expecting this reaction. She had been expecting denial, she had been expecting demands for proof, she had expected them to at least be surprised.

“You know?” She asked Luther. 

“Well yeah, she is the one who...” He gestured around the room.

“What are her powers?” Five asked, casually rolling Hazel’s body onto it’s side so he could check the back pockets.

“I’m not sure, it was like a wave of energy came out of her.” Luther told Five. He frowned.

“What are you looking for?”

Five moved on to Cha Cha. “Clues to where they were staying. They might have left the briefcase there.” He answered cryptically.

Diego stalked off to find Grace, annoyed no one else seemed interested that she was miraculously returned.

“Vanya did this?” Allison asked looking around the room shocked. 

“How did you know she had powers?” Luther asked.

Allison held up the book. “This is dad’s journal from when we were kids. Dad always knew she had powers, he just kept it from her, from all of us.” Something nagged at the back of her mind as she said this.

“Interesting...” Five mused. “Where did you find it?” He asked, remembering that she had left the house.

Allison had gone to the library to try and research people who might be able to start the apocalypse. But she had hardly begun when she was distracted by the memory of Klaus telling them about Harold Jenkins. Her fingers itched to type his name. She couldn’t help herself and quickly found herself researching Vanya’s friend again. This time she got some very interesting results. Harold Jenkins had murdered his father with a hammer at the age of thirteen. There were even a few articles mentioning the boy’s obsession with the umbrella academy and that he had even been born the same day as the super-powered children. Allison felt cold dread. Poor Vanya, he was just a crazed fan of the academy, he was using her to get to them. But Harold had been released years ago, and he hadn’t actually done anything illegal since then, that she could prove. Allison decided to look in to the other thing Klaus had said about Harold, about the body in his attic.

She broke in to his house, there was no woman’s body in the attic, unbeknownst to Allison Harold was currently moving the body to his grandma’s cabin to dispose of it. She did, however, find some very disturbing umbrella academy fanfare hanging all over the walls with all their eyes scratched out. After poking around for a while Allison happened upon the journal, and flicking though it quickly understood it’s significance. 

When she finished telling her story she looked sadly around the room.

“How did this Harold Jenkins guy got a hold of Dad’s journal?” Luther wondered aloud.

“Not sure but he was obsessed with our family, it was really disturbing.” She said and handing the red book to Luther. “I’m going to go check on Vanya.” 

Five flashed over and took it from Luther, reappearing at the bar with the book open, already reading before Luther had the chance to react.

“So Vanya had powers all along.” He said with a low whistle. “Shame she smashed all the liquor, I could sure use a drink.” Luther glared at him.

"I thought they had just come out under pressure. But I guess Dad just lied to all of us." Something in his tone made Five look up.

"Are you just noticing for the first time what a terrible person Dad was?" He asked conversationally. 

Luther drags a frustrated hand down his face and sighs. Because that kind of is what happened. He knew Reginald Hargreeves could be difficult, and cold, but he had thought he was righteous. He had thought the man had everyones best interest at heart. 

"He sent me to the moon for no reason." Luther admitted to Five. "Just so he wouldn't have to look at me."

Five looked up from the journal with a puzzled frown. "That seems like an excessively expensive way to achieve that." 

Luther thought this over.  
"You mean...you think there was another reason, like a secret one even Pogo didn't know about?" Some of the misery cleared from his expression.  
"Maybe it really was about the apocalypse?" He asked Five, getting excited.

"Nope I have a new theory on that." Five said, he flicked back a few pages in the journal. "Dad mentions here that he decided to suppress Vanya's powers because they are too dangerous. Says she has almost unlimited destructive potential, he was worried she could set off a chain of events that destroy the entire world."

"You think Vanya causes the apocalypse?" Luther asks astounded.

"I don't know for sure." Five tells him shutting the book. "Let's not make any rash decisions until we know more."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hargreeves debate what to do about Vanya's powers causing the end of days

Vanya woke up uncomfortably warm. Klaus was still feverish and inadvertently sharing his body heat in an attempt to steal her's, pushing her to the very margins of the bed in his quest for warmth. Vanya carefully extracted herself from his sleepy embrace. She felt well rested, maybe a little cloudy from the sedative. It was dark but she guessed it was only early evening, she could still hear people talking and moving around downstairs. She decided to let Klaus sleep but wake him later for food, it worried her that he hadn't been eating enough.

Vanya padded quietly down the stairs and followed the sound of her siblings talking. Their voices sounded annoyed, like they were arguing, which was pretty standard frankly. But when she found them, all seated at the table in the kitchen, she overheard Luther speaking angrily to Pogo, which was unusual, everyone was fond of Pogo and usually very polite to him, an honour extended to no one else in their family other than maybe their mother.

"You were the one person we always trusted Pogo, the one person we thought we could rely on." Luther was yelling at the chimp. "You had no right to hide something like this from us."

It wasn't just Luther, everyone seemed hurt and furious with the primate. Pogo looked utterly miserable and Vanya felt a rush of protective anger that started up a wave of energy around the kitchen, rattling glasses and plates. This drew everyone's attention to her.  
"What's going on?" She asked, trying to rein in the energy but not really knowing how.

"Vanya!" Allison jumped up and ran over to her. "I'm so glad your ok, I'm sorry I wasn't there." She pulled Vanya into a slightly awkward hug.

"I'm fine." Vanya told her, she was pleased that Allison was making an effort to be her sister but it was slightly irking that she had decided to do it by transitioning straight from completely ignoring her to treating her like a naive child. 

"Luckily." Diego cut in, glaring at Luther. "I only felt ok leaving Vanya and Klaus here knowing those weirdos could come back at any moment because you would be here to protect them, but you decided to drown your sorrows instead." 

"Doesn't seem like Vanya particularly needs to be protected." Five mused.

"He didn't know that then." Diego fumed.

"Why do you try and make everything into an attack on me? Luther snapped back at his brother. 

"Why were you yelling at Pogo?" Vanya asked, beginning to feel irritated with all the arguing. No one took any notice of her question but the crockery rattled again, loud enough to shut them up.

They all turned back to her, their expressions a mixture of sheepish and anxious. 

"You need to stay calm Vanya." Five told her firmly. "Your powers could be dangerous if you lose control of them."

Vanya nodded and tried to relax, thinking of the horrible scene from the afternoon.

"I think they are triggered when I feel like I need to protect someone." She told Five. 

"Oh, why do think that?" His expression was guarded, cautious. 

"It's a theory Klaus and I came up with." She ignored Luther's and Five's scoff at this and continued. "The first time my powers ... manifested... I was protecting Klaus from Luther, then the second time it was because I was protecting Luther from being shot by those two hit men, then just now I saw you all yelling at Pogo..." She trailed off, noticing everyone's oddly guarded looks.

Except for Diego. "What do you mean you were protecting Klaus for Luther?" He asked.

"He was upset." Vanya hedged. "He wanted Klaus to summon Dad and Klaus said he couldn't..."

"So what you attacked him?" Diego asked, his voice filled with venom. Everyone knew that despite his tough guy act Diego had a soft spot for Klaus.

"I... he's fine...I wasn't..." Luther stammered, blushing furiously. "I was devastated, I wasn't thinking straight. I just found out that dad had been lying to me for years." 

"That is a very natural reaction to finding out your father has been lying to you." Five said loudly and pointedly. "Anger, losing control, pretty standard after something like that." 

Again everyone exchanged looks and Vanya felt like she was missing something. 

"Well you should apologise to him, next time you see him." Vanya told him. Luther nodded, his mouth drawn into a thin line.

"Vanya, mom mentioned you have stopped taking your medication..." Allison said suddenly. "Pogo got a refill for you. You really shouldn't stop long term medication suddenly like that, it isn't safe." 

"What? That's none of your..." Vanya began, irritated. The rattling got louder, cupboards opened on their own.

"Miss Allison is correct." Pogo piped up. "You must be experiencing some unpleasant side effects of withdrawal." Pogo held out a plastic bottle to Vanya. Her usual medication.

"You're all acting really weird." Vanya told the room. "Tell me what the hell is going!" A glass exploded at the sink making Allison jump and Pogo flinch. 

Five sighed, he flash across the room to Vanay and took her hand, fixing her with his intense stare, and if Klaus was the king of puppy dog eyes Five was the king of intense stares.  
"We're here for you Vanya, please believe me when I tell you that, but it's obvious you don't have full control yet, remember what happened to me when I took things too far too fast?"

Vanya nodded, they were scared of her Vanya realised. Because she had killed. Her eyes filled with tears again. she had killed, she was a killer.

"Learning about new and potentially dangerous powers and quitting your anxiety medication cold turkey is not a good combination." Five told her,

Vanya took the familiar plastic tube of pills.  
'Yeah." she sighed. "you're right." She shook out two pills and dry shallowed them. 

The relief in the room was palpable. 

"Ok so what is going on?" Vanya asked.

"Shouldn't we give them a minute to kick in?" Luther asked.

"It's not a bad idea." Pogo agreed. 

"Let's all have something to eat!" Grace said sweetly, drawing Vanya's notice for the first time. Grace had been off to the side, apparently making sandwiches. She busied herself with setting plates of food in front of each sibling. 

"Did you fix mom?" Vanya asked Pogo, taking a small bite of her sandwich.

"Yes, the damage to her arm was easily fixed." the ape responded. And this was true. Once she was damaged badly enough her code triggered an automatic shutdown but this was not as bad as the underlying problem that had prompted Diego to try to shut her down in the first place. The true problem was the change Pogo had made to Grace's code at Reginald's request. Reginald Hargreeves had demanded Pogo change Grace's code so that she would not attempt to resuscitate him when he died. This went against Grace's core programming and had a detrimental effect on her function. Now that Reginald Hargreeves was dead the code could be restored and Grace could return to normal. 

"Ok.." Five began after he deemed a long enough time had passed for Vanya to digest her pills. "So first of all, none of us were aware of this, and we all think it was poor form for Dad and Pogo to keep it from you."

Pogo sighed and shuffled awkwardly. 

"You always had powers Vanya." Five told his sister. "Dad knew all along."

Vanya nodded to sow she understood. she stared at her plate, her face pale. But nothing moved that wasn't supposed too so they all guessed the medication was kicking in. 

"Why?" She asked brokenly.

"Dad thought your powers were dangerous, he thought they had the potential to destroy the world." Five explained, his voice was soft, sympathetic.

"The apocalypse?" Vanya whispered.

"Yeah...maybe..." Five shrugged. "I can't be sure but the timing makes sense."

"I don't want to hurt anyone." Vanya said, her voice so soft and sad it broke everyones heart.

"We know that Vanya." Allison said emphatically, her beautiful face crumpling with emotion. "We are here for you, it's not going to happen, we won't let it."

"The pills block your powers." Five assures her, "So as long as you take them you should be fine. Maybe we can work on lowering the does slowly, see if we can find some kind of happy medium?" 

"So that's it?" Luther asks. "Vanya takes a pill and the apocalypse never happens?"

"It probably won't be quite that easy." Five frowns considering likely outcomes. "The temps commission will try to stop us, they will send more people like Hazel and Cha Cha."

"You should all come and stay with me, at my home in LA." Allison told them, "They won't know to look for us there." 

But Five shook his head. "That would put your family in danger, besides, they will find us eventually no matter where we go. We need to make it more annoying for them to have to keep fighting us than to deal with a new timeline." 

"We should all stay here." Luther said. "We have a better chance if we are all together."

"I want to go home first and get some clothes?" Vanya said quietly. She expected to be shut down but instead Five nodded.

"I'll go with you, just incase." He told her.

"I'll come too." Diego told them, he had a car after all. "But Luther, I'm counting on you this time to actually protect Klaus if anyone else shows up."

Luther looked like he was about to argue but Allison put a hand on his arm, silencing him.  
"We'll look after him." She promised. And she really had meant it so was mortified when later, after Vanya, Five and Diego had left and she went up to see if Klaus wanted anything to eat she found he had mysteriously vanished.


	7. the suitcase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reason Klaus was not there when Allison when to check on him.

Klaus woke up when Vanya rattled the mansion with her powers, he was a light sleeper and they were all being pretty loud downstairs, especially Vanya, not that she meant to. He was still feeling sick and sleepy enough to drift back off to sleep but was pulled from his cosy world by the sound of Ben's voice, hushed but furiously reprimanding someone. This got Klaus's attention because it was not very Ben-like behaviour. Hearing Ben talking to anyone else was unusual enough, but if Ben liked another ghost enough to bother talking to them it was usually an amicable conversation. 

"You can't stay here." He was hissing at someone with a venom Klaus had rarely heard from Ben. "He's not going to cope well with seeing you." oh so maybe Ben was speaking about him... "And he's sober, he won't stay sober if you are hanging around, you're going to tip him over the edge."

"look buddy, it's not exactly all peaches and cream for us either."

Klaus's eyes snapped open. He knew that voice. Ben was standing at the end of his bed, trying to block the ghosts of Hazel and Cha Cha from coming any closer. He hadn't noticed Klaus was awake yet.

"Seriously?" Ben asked the assassins. "You expect me to feel sorry for you?" Ben shook his head, incredulous. "You tortured my brother. You tried to kill my other siblings, several times. You have to get out off here." 

"Don't worry, I know just how to get rid of them." Klaus said croakily, sitting up. As he got a better look at the pair he started laughing. Hazel's ghost looked fairly normal from the front but Cha Cha's head was bent at an unnatural angle, resting on her shoulder. It seriously undermined her stern expression. 

"you look so stupid." he told her between fits of giggling and coughing. Cha Cha glared at him but this only made him laugh more. 

Eventually he got himself under control and clambered out of bed, stretching and rummaging around for clothes. He pulled on some jeans and his grey t-shirt, then his black, fury jacket. 

"What are you doing?" Ben asked nervously.

"Getting dressed." Klaus told him, smirking, knowing what Ben was really asking. His voice was still ridiculous. Croaky and squeaky and skipping some syllables entirely, like a teenage boy who's voice was breaking. 

"Please don't go out." Ben begged.

"Do you think there has ever been a person on this earth that was... I don't know, well adjusted enough... to deal with the mutilated ghosts of people who kidnapped and tortured them showing up?" He asked Ben, he put on a tone of exaggerated wistfulness, like he was joking, but Ben could see him trembling with suppressed stress.

"You've been doing so well." Ben sighed. His voice held no judgment, only regret, like he knew this was inevitable. 

"You think you have problems?" Cha Cha snapped at him. "We're dead!" 

"Well go down stairs and find Vanya." Klaus told her pulling his window open and swinging out onto the fire escape. "She can play you her violin." 

When Klaus made it down to the alley the three ghosts were already there, waiting for him. Klaus groaned dramatically at them.

"Seriously? Why are you haunting me anyway? I'm not the one who killed you." He asked Hazel and Cha Cha exasperated.

"Like you could have." Cha Cha smirked, hands on her hips. 

"Hey that was your car right?" Klaus said brightening suddenly when he noticed the small blue car behind Cha Cha in the alley.

"Got anything valuable there? He asked. Hazel and Cha Cha exchanged guarded looks, which Klaus took as a yes.

Klaus recognised the car from being stuffed into the trunk. He tried all the doors but found them locked. He looked around, the alley was pretty secluded and it was late at night, he found a brick on the ground and used it to smash a window. Scrambling around inside the car he found nothing in the glove compartment, but under the front passenger seat was a thick leather briefcase. 

"Oh please be money." He crooned to the case popping it open. A blue light enveloped him and he disappeared.

Ben who had been watching Klaus ransack the car with resigned indifference flew into a panic.

"What the hell was that?" He shouted at Hazel. "Where did he go?"

"More like when." Hazel said mildly.

 

"What?" Ben asked shrilly. He flitted in and out of form around the area, looking for Klaus. Unable to find him he flew back to Hazel and Cha Cha and tried to attack them, it didn't work, he couldn't actually touch them but phasing into them seemed to at least be making them uncomfortable.

"Will you calm down?" Cha Cha snapped at him. "It's not our fault he opened the briefcase, stupid junkie." 

"What was that thing?" Ben demanded.

"A time machine." Hazel told him with a shrug. "Hopefully he doesn't mess up the space time continuum."

"Or maybe he'll mess it up enough that we don't die." Cha Cha said hopefully.

"I don't mind being dead." Hazel told her wistfully. "It's kind of peaceful, nothing hurts anymore, no job to do, nothing to worry about."

Cha Cha gave him a scathing look.  
"I have a question for you." she told Ben. "How come you look so..." SHe gestured roughly to indicate his whole body. "...together? I read your sisters book, I know how you died."

Ben was looking mournfully at the empty car.  
"Why would I help you?" He snapped at her.

"We can help each other, you can clue us in on being a ghost and we can help you with your brother." Cha Cha reasoned.

"You can get Klaus back?" Ben asked hopefully.

"Not that brother, who knows where that moron ended up." Cha Cha flapped a hand dismissively. "I'm talking about Five, the temps commission will keep coming after him. We can help, we can give you information about them. 

"It doesn't matter." Ben told her miserably.

"What you don't care about Five?" Cha Cha asked.

"Of course I care." Ben shook his head. "You don't get it do you."

"Can we just go anywhere now? Hazel asked dreamily. He hadn't been paying any particular attention to their conversation. "Do we have to stay near our bodies? I'd be nice to travel without having to stay in shitty hotels all the time."

"Hazel focus." Cha Cha snapped at him, irritated. "What are you talking about?" She asked Ben.

"Even if you could tell me vital information that could save Five, I couldn't do anything about it. I can't touch anything, I can't talk to anyone now that Klaus is gone."

"Can't you...move furniture around...turn lights on and off... that type of thing?" 

"Yeah, why don't you try it and see how that works out for you." Ben said bitterly and wandered back into the mansion to watch over his other siblings. 

 

Ben found Luther and Allison panicking as they had just discovered Klaus missing.

"Diego is going to be so pissed." Luther grumbled.

"How did we lose him? Again?" Allison paced frantically. 

"We didn't lose him." Luther argued. "He probably climbed out the fire escape to go get drugs."

Allison glared at him.  
"Last time we thought something like that he was kidnapped and tortured." She pointed out.

"This time you're right on the money." Cha Cha said, she had followed Ben and was currently trying to flip the lights on and off, but her hand just phased right though with no effect.

"I see what you mean." She added to Ben. "This is frustrating." 

Ben shot her a withering look and went back to watching his siblings.

"We should check the local bars and alleys." Luther suggested. 

"No we should wait for Five to get back, he might have an idea where Klaus would be taken if he's been kidnapped by Hazel and Cha Cha's replacements."

"I really don't think there was a break in." Luther insisted. "They were hardly subtle about it the last two times."

Allison faltered. "You could be right." SHe agreed sadly. "But we should still wait for the others. They need to know what's going on."

Luther groaned picturing Diego's anger. It seemed like he had spent the last week trying to work out where one sibling or another had gotten too.  
"Fine, but when we do find Klaus I'm putting a tracker on him."


End file.
